Cars for Sale

Description

Hilton & Moss are proud to present this beautifully restored 1953 Porsche 1500 Super, Pre-A.

This is a truly exquisite example that has been painstakingly restored by a marque expert over many years.

The car is matching numbers and has been restored back into its original factory colours of Fish Grey with blue trim. Accompanied by a copy of its orignal Kardex build record confirming its factory-correct engine and colour scheme.

The car was born on 21st January 1953, with an engine number of 40127 which clearly shows in the Porsche model history records that it was fitted with the more powerful 70bhp engine as fitted to the Super models with engine numbers between 40118 and 40685.

As with the majority of these cars, it was originally destined for the US market, where it would remain for most of its early life before ending up back in its homeland of Germany in 1993.

The car was acquired by its current owner in 2017 where he embarked on an exhaustive restoration to bring the car up to a fast road specification with reliability at its core. To that end, the car has been restored with the addition of period correct sports seats as found in the 550 Spyder, that have been trimmed in the correct blue Beford Cord and edged in the correct blue leather.

During the restoration of the car, the owner went to great lengths to uncover original pieces of the leather, trim and carpets to ensure that he acquired the very best and closest to the original fabrics for the build. This included matching the dashboard blue from another highly original car owned by Dennis Jenks in period. The original seats are available with the car, however for the more spirited driver the seats currently fitted will prove far more suitable in most instances.

To compliment these wonderful period seats the car has been fitted with a replica 550 Spyder steering wheel but once again the correct, original steering has been retained and can be re-fitted if required. All of the original gauges and the radio have been rebuilt and are fully operational.

The car has also had the benefit of smaller, wider 15 inch wheels with slightly wider radial tyres that keep the car pointing the right way for more easily and allow the driver to make the most out of the sweet little engine.

The matching numbers 1,500cc 70bhp 'Super' engine has been fully rebuilt and has benefitted from having had a 356B crank fitted in lieu of the roller bearing crank, and has been upgraded to include a central tie bolt which helps to keep the engine together in three locations in place of the standard two. This ensures a far more robust and reliable drivetrain and will help to preserve the original engine. The car is running on the correct twin carburettors with the welded steel manifolds as found on a factory Super. The car also benefits from having been upgraded to a 12v electrical system throughout.

The knowledge and passion for these cars that the owner has, really shows through in the final car as it is beautifully finished everywhere with every detail carefully thought about. Given the age of this particular car, it would also be eligible to complete in the Mille Miglia and would make an excellent choice to do such events and many other events across the globe.

While early 356s were built at Porsche's Gmund facility in Austria, by 1950 the company had outgrown this site and duly relocated production to Stuttgart. Alongside this move, the coachwork was newly overseen by Reutter, who switched the body material from aluminium to steel, and the first cabriolet variants were built. Ongoing mechanical and cosmetic improvements meant that by 1953, the 356 featured mounted bumpers, a one-piece bent windscreen to replace the earlier split-window design, a synchromesh gearbox and an optional 1,500cc air-cooled flat-four engine that significantly boosted performance. These early 356s were later dubbed 'Pre-A' following the 356As introduction in 1955.

Towards the end of 1951 Porsche introduced a larger version of the flat-four engine. By increasing the bore to 80mm, the displacement grew in size to 1,286cc and with it, the power rose to 45bhp. It was offered alongside the original 1.1 litre engine, which remained in producion until 1954. It took a lot more effort to develop the third varitation on the four-cylinder engine, the 1,500. With the help of crankshaft manufacturer Hirth, the Porsche engineers managed to increase the stroke sufficiently to get to the desired displacement of 1.5 litres. Introduced in the 356 1500 during 1952, the engine produced 55bhp.

Porsche's competition department reworked the 1500 engine with hotter cams and bigger carburettors, boosting power to 70bhp. In October 1952, this engine found its way into a new road car. The 1500 Super.

A summary of the restoration includes:

- Fully body restoration

- Full body respray in original colours

- Fully retrimmed in correct in correct colour and interior fabrics

- Upgrade 550 Spyder seats and steering wheel

- Engine and gearbox upgrade and rebuild

- New braking system fully rebuilt throughout

- Upgraded to 12v electrical system

- Wider wheels and tyres

- New wiring loom